PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — As the attorney general’s office investigates a police officer’s shooting of a man armed with a knife, the city’s police chief on Monday defended the officer’s use of force.
As of Monday afternoon, there was no official comment on the status of 29-year-old Presque Isle resident Derek Sam, who was shot by Officer Lucas Hafford on Saturday evening.
Police said Sunday that Sam was at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and was in critical condition. Sam was initially taken to The Aroostook Medical Center after the shooting and then flown by LifeFlight to EMMC.
Neither local police nor the attorney general’s office would comment on his condition Monday.
A representative at EMMC said Monday that no information about Sam’s condition was available, which means that either Sam is not a patient or has not signed a consent form allowing information to be released.
Sam reportedly was acting suspiciously and seen carrying a knife near McDonald’s on Main Street shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday. Hafford arrived and told Sam to drop the knife, and then used a Taser, which did not prevent Sam from continuing to advance on the officer, according to police. A video taken by a witness, after the Taser was deployed, shows Sam still walking toward Hafford, who then fires what sounds like three shots at Sam.
It is not clear why the Taser did not work in preventing Sam from advancing. Presque Isle Police Chief Matt Irwin said the Taser did deploy, but that the two probes from the electronic weapon that deliver the shock may not have fully latched onto the target.
It also is not clear if Sam was using alcohol or drugs, Irwin said, which could have had an impact on how the suspect responded to the Taser. There was no physical drug evidence, but Sam will likely be tested for substances later, Irwin said.
Irwin said the attorney general’s office would likely investigate what happened with the stun gun.
As is standard practice, Hafford has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of the shooting. Irwin said Monday that his officer acted according to standard police training.
“Someone with a knife, once they get into a certain proximity, can act quicker than [an officer can react],” Irwin said.
The Maine attorney general’s office, which investigates all incidents of police using deadly force, considers several criteria in analyzing a case, according to Timothy Feeley, spokesman for the attorney general.
The person must “reasonably believe” that “deadly force is imminently threatened” and that “deadly force is necessary to counter that imminent threat,” Feeley said Monday in an email. He added that whether deadly force was necessary also must be “judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, allowing for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions.”
Concerning this specific case, Feeley said the incident is under review and the office would have no further comment at this time.
Sam has not been charged with a crime yet, but Irwin said Monday that the Presque Isle Police Department was working with the Aroostook County district attorney on charges that would be forthcoming. In the past year, Sam was arrested by Presque Isle police three times on charges that included theft, disorderly conduct and domestic violence assault.
This is the first time in Irwin’s six years leading the Presque Isle police that an officer has shot a suspect.
Irwin, who spent two decades in law enforcement in Florida before coming to Presque Isle, said he has never shot at a criminal suspect, but that it was “pretty occasional,” with several such officer-involved shootings occurring every year in that state.